Right now, I was facing the biggest crisis of my life. I’m so sleepy...
“Graaaaaaaaah!”
I had been facing off against this dragon for the past three days. This whole time, it had been continuing the exact same pattern of right claw, fangs, right claw, left claw to attack. Every now and again, though, it tried a random surprise attack, so I couldn’t completely check out.
“Shouldn’t you be tired too?” I asked, knowing I wouldn’t get an answer.
As expected, the dragon just kept on attacking. This time, it bathed me with its mana breath. Its breath was actually an important source of energy for me. It was thanks to it that I was able to constantly replenish my mana reserves and continue using strengthening magic for this long. I was using strengthening magic to fend off my exhaustion and muscle pain as well, so as long as my mana didn’t run dry, I could technically keep fighting forever without rest. But while I could get rid of my physical exhaustion, my brain’s desire to sleep didn’t go away. It was similar to how an IV drip kept you hydrated, but your throat still felt parched.
“Come to think of it, one of Master’s books had a chapter on a guy who’d used strengthening magic to keep fighting for ages without sleep,” I muttered. That guy had managed to hold out for like, what, a month?
At the end of the chapter, the author added a footnote saying: “This isn’t what I studied strengthening magic for,” and called the experiment pointless. I could see now why he hadn’t bothered doing more research on fighting indefinitely. I’d only been doing this for three days, and I was already sick of it. Unfortunately, the dragon was still full of energy.
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The dragon swept at me with its tail, giving me a precious moment of rest. I squatted down and closed my eyes, getting a second and a half of sleep. These old bones would have preferred ten seconds of rest at a time, but sadly the dragon wasn’t that slow.
“All right, all right, break time’s over.”
I dutifully dodged the claw attack that came next. I was keeping my movements as small as possible to conserve energy, but I was also preparing some contingencies in case I got hit, since taking one of those attacks with no defenses would kill me instantly. You’d think this thing would be tired of trying to kill me by now.
I knew there were wild species that were really persistent when hunting, but spending more energy on the hunt than you got from eating your prey was suicide in the long term, so even the persistent species gave up eventually. Do I really have so much mana that it’s worth spending days fighting me? Considering how much mana the dragon had already expended, the few thousand kites of energy it would get eating me wouldn’t be nearly enough to make up the deficit.
“Well, I guess this does prove you feed on mana and not flesh.”
If those rust-colored scales really did serve the same function as magesteel, then the dragon could probably replenish its energy reserves with the ambient mana in the forest. In which case, it didn’t need to hunt at all. Just spending all day in the forest would keep it fed. Most likely, it was the dragon’s predator instincts that drove it to hunt, not hunger. In the same way that I wanted to sleep despite not actually needing rest, it probably wanted to hunt even if it didn’t have to. That was probably why it had left the forest back then too. Its instincts had told it to kill.
“Yeah, you’re definitely too dangerous to be allowed to roam free,” I said as I slowly but surely continued luring it eastward.
Each step the dragon took moved it a few meters, so it was decently fast-going. After each attack pattern, it usually made it a couple dozen meters. Bringing this thing all the way to Doneiks was step one of the dragon hunting plan.
It took an inordinate amount of mana to turn something into a Valkaan, but there was enough mana in the forest to accomplish that. If we left the dragon alone, it would almost certainly transform at some point. However, killing it was difficult because of how deadly its breath was.
I still hadn’t been able to come up with a good way to neutralize it. The best I could do was just protect myself, so the current plan was to lure it onto the mana-scarce plains, and then take it down with cannons after I’d drained it of mana. Because the cannons didn’t use mana, the dragon wouldn’t be able to absorb any energy from the cannonballs. The only problem was, Doneiks’s preparations weren’t complete yet. If I brought the dragon over now, I’d just be consigning the city to death. Furthermore, I wasn’t originally the one who was supposed to do the luring. I had wanted to pick the ideal person for the job, but thanks to the dragon’s sudden appearance, all my carefully laid plans were ruined. This happens every time. Why does everyone call the Black Werewolf King some mastermind strategist when nothing I try works out the way I want it to?
“I just came here to scope out the forest, so why am I stuck going one-on-one with you?”
Annoyed, I kicked the dragon’s chin, but of course, it did basically no damage. All I succeeded in accomplishing was pissing the dragon off more, and it started attacking with even more ferocity.
“A one-on-one was the last thing I wanted...” I grumbled, this time aiming a kick at its eye when its next claw attack missed.
To my surprise, the dragon dodged. It drew its mouth back to try and bite my leg, so I instead kicked one of its teeth. It’d be nice if that hurts it a little, but...nope, no dice. Man, this is such a waste of time. At the very least, I’d finally taken it out of the forest, so now I just had to drag it around in circles until Doneiks was ready to fight it. I couldn’t let it be, because there was no telling what it would do then, so I had to keep taunting it.
“How many more days am I going to have to keep this up for...?”
As I moaned to myself, I heard the sound of fireworks in the distance. That was the demon army’s signal flares. What color are they?
“Let’s see here...”
I backflipped over the dragon’s tail and looked up at the sky. The color of the smoke signaled that Doneiks’s preparations were complete and that the plan could begin. Wait, really? You guys are done that fast? I continued dodging for a bit longer just in case, but then I saw a dust cloud on the horizon.
“Vaitoooooo!”
Firnir was running towards me, decked out in a full suit of armor. Even with the heavy armor, she was running faster than a bullet train.
“Don’t get too close, it’s dangerous!” I shouted.
Unfortunately, my warning came too late, as the dragon immediately switched its attention to the new threat and unleashed its breath. A beam of light shot straight towards Firnir, too fast for her to dodge. Oh no! But as the light faded, I saw Firnir standing in the middle of the scorched plain, looking no worse for the wear. She twirled her spear, hefted her shield, and puffed her chest out proudly.
“I’m invincible!” she beamed.
“That’s only possible because of your magical armor. Don’t be too reckless!”
“Don’t worry, Vaito, just leave the rest to me! Uryaaah! Hiyaaah!” Firnir held her shield in front of her and charged at the dragon, taking its claws head-on. They collided with the force of two trucks running into each other, but Firnir was once again unharmed.
“See, I’m invincible!”
“Don’t get too cocky!” I retorted, though in truth, she’d come at the perfect time.
The few seconds she’d bought me had given me time to recast my waning strengthening magic and catch my breath. Now that I was no longer alone, a wave of relief—coupled with exhaustion—washed over me. My body ached all over. I really am getting old, huh?
Firnir used her shield and armor to repel the dragon’s breath, then turned to me and shouted, “Reinforcements will be coming soon, so just hold out a little longer!”
“Wait, you aren’t my reinforcements?!”
“I’m just here to buy time until the real cavalry arrives! Whoa!” The dragon’s claws bent Firnir’s shield, and she deftly backstepped away.
That shield must have been as thick as a tank’s armor to have taken as many blows as it had. It had definitely been enchanted with some kind of magic, but now it was broken. Fortunately, it was Firnir’s armor that seemed to deflect the breath. Looking closely, I could see a rather strange mana field had formed around her. It was something I’d never seen or even read about before. Is this one of Rolmund’s new inventions?
“Uryaaaaaah!” Firnir threw her spear at the dragon. Though it bounced off the dragon’s scales, it exploded upon impact, causing the massive beast to stagger backwards.
What in the heck is that? A rocket spear?! I looked on in shock.
“Vaito, get on my back!” she called out.
“You won’t be able to move with me on you!”
“Just do it!” She grabbed my hand and hauled me onto her back. Kentauros were smaller than actual horses, so she was barely able to carry me.
“D-Damn you’re heavy! On second thought, get off!”
“See, I told you!” I said. We really don’t have time for this!
The dragon was already recovering from the explosion. Its recovery rate was insane.
“I’m gonna need your help for this, Vaito!”
“Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on letting you take him on alone!”
It didn’t matter how tired I was, I wasn’t going to abandon Firnir. Just knowing I wasn’t alone gave me a surge of strength. I had people fighting together with me, and that made me invincible.
“Let’s do this!”
“Hell yeah!”
As we both readied our weapons, the space above the dragon’s head began to twist and warp.
“What now?!” I exclaimed.